Another Way To Die
by psych21
Summary: Sequel to ‘Control’ and ‘I Love You…I’ll Kill You’. This is the 3rd and last story in the saga. Someone that you think that you can trust is just another way to die.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Another Way To Die

Fandom: Post-Dark Knight

Rating: M

Summary: Sequel to 'Control' and 'I Love You…I'll Kill You'. This is the 3rd and last story in the saga. Someone that you think that you can trust is just another way to die.

Pairing: I'll never tell…well at least not for a few chapters anyway!

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the Batman characters. (Except for the ones I've created!)

A/N: Ok, so I decided to write a sequel to 'Control'. I'm really nervous about it though because I don't want this story to get too ridiculous. So I'm counting on you, my loyal readers, to let me know if it gets too out-there! Enjoy!

Chapter One

"Kellogg was found with a knife stuck right through the middle of the heart." Officer Locke told Gordon, sitting down across from him in Gordon's office.

"Damn." Gordon sighed, throwing a file folder down onto his desk in frustration. "That's the third undercover cop who has been killed trying to infiltrate Maroni's organization in ten months. This has to stop."

"Are we going to stop sending in cops?" Locke asked out of curiosity.

"I don't want to, but I don't know how else we will get anywhere if we stop." Gordon replied. "Now that the Joker is, well not around anymore, the next major threat to Gotham is the mob-more specifically Maroni's organization. They are the biggest fraction of the mob in Gotham and what we should be targeting our efforts on."

"But," he added. "We can't keep losing good cops."

"I agree." Locke nodded. "Yet how else are we supposed to bring their organization down? None of their guys are willing to talk to us."

"We need to figure out who the snitch is in this department while also uncovering the identity of Maroni's new hit-man and sending in one more cop." Gordon explained.

"How do we know that it's someone new?" Locke asked.

"We have files and records for all of Maroni's former and current hit-men. We have kept track of their M.O. and favorite style of execution. All three of the cops have been killed by having a knife stuck through their heart. None of the men on file have done anything close to that." Gordon explained.

"Besides, every time we bring in the known hit-men for questioning they all have solid alibis that hold up." Gordon added. "No, it's got to be someone new. I just wish we had any kind of clue to tell us who it is."

"So how are we going to get information on Maroni's new hit-man?" Locke asked.

"We're going to send one more cop in there." Gordon replied. "His job will be to figure out the identity of the hit-man."

Locke laughed. "And who are you going to guilt into going undercover? No one wants to do it anymore. It was hard enough to convince Kellogg to go in."

"Well," Gordon looked up at Locke, "actually, I was hoping you would do it."

The smile that had been on Locke's face slowly dropped and he felt the blood drain from his face. "Me, sir?"

"Yes." Gordon replied. "I want you to go undercover in Maroni's organization."

"But I don't have much experience going undercover. Shouldn't you choose someone who has more experience?" He was desperate to find any excuse not to go. He knew it was selfish but he didn't want to die and was fairly certain that's what would happen if he accepted this assignment.

"I think you will do an excellent job. You're a good cop and very honest." Gordon told him, hoping to convince him. "Besides, I need someone I can trust to go in there and I trust you implicitly."

"I'm glad you have such faith in me, but I would be lying if I said this was something that I really wanted to do." Locke replied.

"I understand your hesitation given the fate of the last three men given this assignment." Gordon replied. "But there's another reason I need you to be the next cop going undercover. I've arranged for Batman to take a larger role in helping with our investigation. He's going to make contact with you and kind of keep an eye out. He will be helping to make sure that nothing happens to you."

Having Batman on his side did make him feel a little better about this assignment. But it didn't make him feel entirely confident about the whole thing. Still, he felt like he had to do this. He couldn't let the Commissioner down.

"Ok." He nodded slowly. "I'll do it."

"Wonderful." Gordon smiled. "I promise you'll be ok. Between Batman helping you and our own investigation into the department, we'll find out who the leak in the department is before you end up like Kellogg or the others. And with any luck you will be able to find out who their new hit-man is."

"I certainly hope so." Locke chuckled. "So when do I start?"

* * *

Bruce was busy looking over some papers, occasionally glancing up at the monitors in front of him. Yet another cop was killed during an undercover investigation of Vincent Maroni's organization. Darrell James, Charles Lawrence and now Patrick Kellogg were all killed.

He couldn't help but feel slightly responsible for their deaths. After all, he was the one who approached Gordon about aggressively going after Maroni's organization in the hopes of toppling it and ultimately incarcerating Vincent Maroni.

In his mind, Vincent Maroni deserved a lot worse than incarceration. But he would settle for seeing him behind bars for the rest of his life.

He looked over at the calendar on the wall and saw the date, noting in his mind that it had already been ten months since the warehouse explosion. The explosion and resulting fire had burned the two bodies found inside to the point where they weren't recognizable. The only details about the bodies that forensics could be sure about was that one was a female and one was a male. There was no way to properly identify who the people inside were.

It drove the public crazy as they guessed who was inside and clamored for information. At first, he was one of those people, searching desperately for answers about the identities. Then, as time went on he realized the truth.

Lacy had blown up the warehouse with her and the Joker inside, and now they were both dead. He hadn't wanted to believe that Lacy was dead and held out hope for a while that she was fine. He searched hospitals for Jane Does and did his own personal search of the city for her. But there was no sign of her.

The thought had occurred to him that perhaps she had gotten out of the warehouse alive and was just living her life on some island. But he knew that wasn't likely. In order for that story to be plausible she would have had to trap some other poor woman in the warehouse to stage her own death and she wouldn't have led him and Alfred to believe that she was dead. She would have contacted them.

And she didn't.

The only good thing that seemed to come from Lacy's death was the fact that he was 99% sure the Joker was dead too. No one has heard from or seen him since that night. Crime in Gotham has gone back to being 'normal' and the public has calmed down significantly. For the first time in years, there isn't a madman running around Gotham trying to kill and destroy its citizens.

Now there's just the mob.

And he is determined to bring it down—starting with Vincent.

Alfred came up to where Bruce was sitting a brought a cup of cocoa. "Perhaps you should get some sleep."

"I'll sleep later." Bruce shrugged, taking the cup of cocoa and chugging half of the cups' contents in one large gulp. "Good cocoa."

"Thanks." Alfred chuckled softly. "But I really think you should get some sleep. I don't think I've seen you sleep in days."

"That's because I haven't slept in days." Bruce countered.

"Well then that settles it." Alfred said with a determined tone. He took the papers out of Bruce's hands and turned off the monitors. "You are going to bed now, Sir."

"Alfred, I don't need…"

"I'm not taking no for an answer." Alfred interrupted. "Don't make me drug your cocoa again." There had been a few times over the past few months that he had slipped sleeping pills into Bruce's cocoa to get him to sleep since he often refused to rest for days at a time.

Bruce looked at Alfred and could tell that he was serious. "Fine." He sighed. "You win."

"I usually do." Alfred boasted, waving towards Bruce's bedroom. "Now go and I better not catch you sneaking out or doing work."

"Yes Alfred." Bruce sighed.

Alfred simply shook his head and sighed as he watched Bruce head off to bed. He then took a look at what Bruce had been working on. It was no surprise that it was more stuff concerning Vincent Maroni and his organization.

Ever since Lacy told him that she had been working with Vincent, Bruce had been interested in bringing his organization down. That interest had grown into a some-what obsession after Lacy's death, with Bruce determined that Vincent was responsible for Lacy's downfall.

Bruce was convinced that Vincent was ultimately responsible for Lacy's death because he had been the one to supply Lacy with everything she needed to execute her plans. He had given her the materials and opportunity to corner the Joker in that warehouse and it was his fault that she had gone through with her plans.

If Bruce had been able to, Alfred was sure that he would have stopped her. But unfortunately he wasn't able to save her this time and he had to find a way to deal with that.

Alfred could see it written all over Bruce's face. He felt guilty about what happened with Lacy. While he understood what Bruce was feeling, and felt some guilt over it as well, ultimately he knew that Lacy had made her own choices and was prepared to deal with the consequences.

Sure, he felt like Vincent Maroni was scum and needed to be stopped—not only because of his involvement with Lacy but also because of the circle of crime he perpetuates in Gotham. The mob was starting to become out of control again and needed to be reigned back in.

Gotham would be a lot better off without the Maroni organization around. He just hoped that Bruce and the police could accomplish their goal.

He also hoped that Bruce could find some peace with Lacy's death. He had found his own sense of peace with it. Of course he missed still Lacy and always would, but he liked to console himself with the fact that she was now at peace and no longer had to wrestle with her demons.

Thinking about her resting in peace and finally being free of the Joker helped him immensely because he knew that was the one thing she wanted most in this world.

And it seemed like now she finally had it.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Another Way To Die

Fandom: Post-Dark Knight

Rating: M

Pairing: I'll never tell…well at least not for a few chapters anyway!

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the Batman characters. (Except for the ones I've created!)

A/N: So glad to see that this story has some readers! Hope I don't disappoint! Anyway, thanks for the reviews. The next chapter will contain some explanations to some of the questions that I'm sure are on your mind. Enjoy!

Chapter Two

Later that night, Vincent Maroni was in his club, Puzzles. He was in the upper VIP section leaning against the balcony that overlooked the dance floor. He was keeping an eye out on the entire club, but his gaze kept falling on one particular woman.

She was moving her body in perfect time with the beat of the music, letting herself go without any inhibitions. A group of men had formed a parameter around her and although she danced with them, it was obvious that she wasn't interested in anything more than a dance. She was already spoken for and they all knew it. They also knew that if they got too touchy-feely with her they would lose their hands.

He made eye contact with one of the guys and motioned for him to come up to the second floor to talk to him. The guy on the dance floor nodded and let the woman know what he was doing before slipping away from the group.

"What's up boss?" Dale asked when he reached where Vincent was standing.

"Is she having a good time?" Vincent asked, not taking his eyes off the woman down below.

"I think so, yes." Dale replied, glancing down at the woman. "You know how much she loves to dance."

"Yes." Vincent nodded. "I do. Tell her I want to see her in my office. We have business to discuss."

"Yes, Mr. M." Dale replied before heading down the stairs. It had been about ten months since he came to work for Vincent and he still wasn't sure he made the right decision. Truthfully he had no other place to go with the Joker out of commission. Still, he couldn't help but think that he might have made a huge mistake agreeing to this job.

He moved his way through the crowd and to the woman. "He wants to see you in his office." He told her, having to yell above the music.

She simply nodded and gave a smile to the guys around her. "See you later boys." She winked before following Dale to the back where Vincent's office was. She stopped outside of the office and turned to face him. "Dale?"

"Yes?" He answered.

"How do I look?" She asked, moving to fix her hair.

Dale looked her over, starting with her knee-high stiletto boots, up to her leather mini-skirt and low-cut, silver halter top. Her light blonde hair was swept up into a loose ponytail in the back. "You look absolutely stunning."

She smiled at her friend. "Thanks. I know I can always rely on you for a compliment."

"Now you better get in there." Dale reminded her.

She opened the door and walked in, seeing that Vincent was on the phone. She motioned to him that she could wait out in the hallway until he was done but he waved her inside. Not wanting to bother him, she softly closed the door and walked over to the bar to fix herself a drink.

"That's great news." Vincent said. "Ok. I'll be in touch."

She saw that he had hung up. "Something good happen?" She asked.

"Yes, my dear." He smiled, getting up from his chair and moving over to her. "Something good has happened. The police have finally found Kellogg."

"Finally!" She rolled her eyes and laughed before downing the whole drink in one large gulp. "Took them long enough."

"Yes." Vincent nodded, chuckling at her. "I take it you were thirsty, my dear?"

"You know dancing makes me thirsty." She reminded him with a smile.

"Indeed." He nodded again, closing the gap between them and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"You know, you never did give me a proper hello." She chastised him.

"No?" He chuckled, playing along. "Well let's see if I can fix that now." His lips descended upon hers and he moved his hand to the back of her neck to control the kiss. "Hello." He finally said once the kiss was over.

"Hello." She smiled, wrapping his arms around his neck.

"So now that that's settled, we should get back to business." He told her. "Did you have any problems taking care of Kellogg?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "It was an easy kill—probably the easiest one yet."

"I'm glad to hear it." He smiled. "I told you that in time you feel more comfortable with your job. After all, you had no problems with it before."

"Yeah, but I still don't remember that." She pointed out, breaking away from his grasp and walking to the window. "I don't remember any of my life before that accident."

"I know that has to be tough for you, darling, but haven't I done a good job of filling in the gaps?" He asked, walking over to stand behind her.

"You've been incredible about filling in the gaps, but hearing about it from someone else is entirely different than remembering it." She sighed. "I don't remember being a hit-woman and I don't remember becoming engaged to you. Hell, I don't even remember what my favorite color was!"

"Red." He softly whispered into her ear.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"Your favorite color was red." He repeated. Honestly he had no idea if he was right or not. But it sounded good to him so he went with it. He had done that with many things when trying to help her 'remember' her former life before the 'accident'.

She sighed and threw her hands up in frustration. "Then I guess red is my favorite color."

"What's bothering you?" Vincent asked, spinning her around so that she was facing him.

"I just wish I could remember my old life." She replied.

"I'll be happy to tell you anything you want to know about it." He offered, getting prepared to make up some new lies to tell her.

"No thanks." She shook her head. "I appreciate it but no."

"Why not? Don't you trust me?" He asked, feigning a look of hurt on his face.

"It's not that." She smiled, touching the side of his face. "I know you wouldn't lie to me about my past."

"No, I wouldn't." He lied.

"I simply wish that I could remember it for myself," she explained, "that I could see the memories in my head. It's so frustrating to not know who you are."

"You'll get your memories back eventually." He told her, brushing a stray strand of hair from her face. "It will just take some time."

"It's already been ten months and I'm no better off now than I was then." She pointed out. "Let's face the facts. I'm never gonna remember."

"Well I don't care if you ever remember." He told her, causing her to look at him strangely. He knew that she was feeling down about her lack of memories and realized he needed to do something to placate her. "To me, memories or not, you're still the same woman I fell in love with. You're still the same woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with."

"That's sweet of you to say." She smiled sadly.

He studied her face. "Are you not happy here, with me?"

She looked down at the floor and then stepped away from him. "No. It's not that at all. Why would you think that?"

"Because in the past ten months you've never once told me that you love me." He pointed out. "I haven't wanted to pressure you because I know all the adjustments that you've had to make, but I can't help but wonder how you feel about me."

"I'm sorry that I haven't been able to say it back to you. I haven't meant to hurt you." She apologized. "But with everything I've been going through I guess I haven't thought much about it. You've been amazing to me since the accident and I can't thank you enough for how patient you've been."

"That doesn't answer my question though." He pointed out. "Are you happy here with me?"

"Yes." She nodded. "I never meant to make you feel otherwise. I may not be able to say the words, but you are very important to me and I don't want to do anything to jeopardize us."

"I'm sorry." He apologized. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No, I'm glad you did." She smiled at him. "But aren't you tired of waiting for me to go back to being the woman I was before?"

"No." He told her. "In fact, I like this version better. But this is a conversation that can wait until another time. We still have some business to talk about."

"Ok." She nodded obediently. "What's up?"

"The police are probably going to send in yet another undercover cop." He explained. "They seem to be obsessed with finding a way to bring me and my organization down one way or another."

"So what would like me to do?" She asked.

"We're going to be hiring some more people for the organization. I want you to get to know them and figure out which of them is the cop." Vincent replied.

"But I'm not a detective." She objected.

"No, but you're a woman." He pointed out. "And you have incredibly accurate gut instincts. I know I can trust you to figure out who the cop is."

"Ok." She nodded with a sigh. "Am I correct in assuming that you want me to kill them once I discover them?"

"Absolutely." He smiled. Now that business was settled, he wanted to turn the conversation back to a personal topic. "Are you going to be spending the night with me tonight?"

"Actually, I'm kind of tired." She told him. "It's late and it's been a long day. I just want to go home and go to sleep if that's ok."

"That's fine." He assured her even though he was disappointed.

"I'll find a way to make it up to you though." She promised, going over and planting a kiss on him.

"Oh I'm sure you will." He smiled. "Have Dale take you home and tell him to come back once he's done. There's something I want to discuss with him."

"Alright." She nodded. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Are we still on for lunch?" He asked.

"Of course." She smiled. "Goodnight Vincent."

"Goodnight Angela." He smiled back. He waited until she had closed the door to let the smile fall from his face.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Another Way To Die

Fandom: Post-Dark Knight

Rating: M

Pairing: I'll never tell…well at least not for a few chapters anyway!

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the Batman characters. (Except for the ones I've created!)

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has been reviewing this story. I really appreciate it! I still have some interesting twists coming in this story so I hope you all stick around. Enjoy!

Chapter Three

"You're awfully quiet tonight." Dale noted as he drove Angela home. He stopped at a red light and looked over at her. She was staring out the window. "You ok?"

"Sure." She replied, shrugging. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know." He shook his head. "You just seem like something's bothering you."

They continued on in silence for a few moments until she turned to look at him. "You knew me before the accident, right?"

"Yeah." He laughed nervously, wondering why she was bringing that up now.

"And you know things about my past, right?" She continued with her questioning.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"So what is Vincent hiding from me?" She asked. "What does he not want me to know?"

"What are you talking about?" He laughed nervously again. "Vincent's not hiding anything from you."

"Dale, I'm not as stupid or naïve as Vincent seems to think I am." She told him. "I can tell when someone's hiding something from me and I can tell when someone's lying."

"He's not hiding anything from you." Dale lied.

She didn't believe Dale and was starting to get frustrated.

"Why would you think he's hiding something?" Dale asked, wanting to figure out what she was thinking.

"Call it a hunch or woman's intuition. Call it whatever you want. I just get the feeling that there are things about my past that he is deliberately withholding from me." She explained.

"I thought he's been really good about telling you about your past." Dale pointed out, hoping she wasn't starting to doubt Vincent's story. If she was, then that would spell trouble for everyone.

"He has." She admitted. "I'm just not sure if he's telling me everything. It still feels like there are big gaps in his story. Some things just don't add up right." She also wasn't sure she could trust everything he had been telling her.

He hated hearing that she was starting to doubt Vincent and knew he had to work hard to calm her fears. He decided to take an unorthodox approach to it. "Look, you're right. There are some things that Vincent hasn't told you."

"Like what?" She asked eagerly, wanting to hear all of it.

"I'm not going to tell you." Dale replied, seeing the look on her face turn from one of excitement to disappointment. "But I'm not trying to be mean or anything. I'm not telling you because it's for your own good. Vincent doesn't want you to know some of the bad things that have happened to you in the past."

"What kind of bad things are we talking about?" She asked, hoping to get any kind of clue as to what was being kept from her.

"Things that would keep you up at night and haunt you." Dale replied, keeping his descriptions vague. The last thing he wanted was for her to figure anything out. But he had to make her see that remembering her past was only going to hurt her—and most likely get her killed.

"You had some really horrific things happen to you and Vincent just wants to protect you. He doesn't want to see you disturbed by any of it."

"He has no right to keep me from knowing about it though." She countered. "It's my past and I have a right to know about it."

"Trust me. You are better off not knowing." He shook his head.

"Dale, I'm sorry." She apologized. "I know I can trust you, but I can't let this go. You have to understand…"

"No you have to understand!" He yelled, interrupting her. "You have to understand that anything Vincent or I keep from you is for your own good. If you were to remember any of it you would immediately wish that you hadn't. This isn't something malicious that we are doing to you. This is a favor that we are doing for you."

"You need to drop this immediately and just focus on re-building your life." He felt slightly guilty about being so harsh with her but felt that it was necessary. He had to get her to understand that she couldn't go digging around into her past.

Not only would it damage her emotionally to remember everything that she had been through, but it would most likely get her killed. Although Vincent seemed to really care about her, he would have no problem killing her if she remembered her old life and decided to leave him.

"Please, promise me that you won't go digging around or causing problems with Vincent trying to remember your past." He was practically begging by now. "Please?"

She looked at him and could tell that he was being sincere about this. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to remember everything. So she decided to lie to him. "Ok. I'll drop it."

"Thank you!" He exclaimed. "And you'll see. Your new life is going to get easier. I promise. You just need to let go of the past and focus on your future."

"That's exactly what I'll do then." She nodded. "I'll focus on my future."

"And don't worry." He assured her. "I won't tell Vincent we had this little chat because he wouldn't be pleased to know that you were gung-ho about finding out about your past."

"Thanks." She gave Dale a small smile as they pulled up to her house.

"Are you going to be ok tonight?" He asked.

"Yeah." She nodded. "I'll be fine. Thanks for the ride and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight." He told her as she got out of the car.

* * *

Vincent stared at the papers in front of him, but he wasn't thinking about those. He was thinking about Lacy, a.k.a. Angela. He had to find a way to get her to stop thinking about her past, and had a good idea of where to start.

A knock on his door bought him from his thoughts. "Come in." He bellowed.

"Hey, boss. You wanted to see me?" Dale asked as he came into the office and closed the door.

"Yes. Did she get home ok?" Vincent asked Dale as the man approached his desk.

"Yes sir." Dale nodded.

"I need you to keep an extra-close eye on her for me." Vincent said.

"Why?" Dale asked. He was already assigned to being her driver.

"I get the feeling she's restless and she might try to find out more information about her past." Vincent explained. "If she were to remember who she was before the warehouse explosion then everything would be ruined. She knows too much about the organization. I would have to kill her so that she can't go to the police or Batman for help in destroying everything that I have worked so hard to create."

He paused for a moment. "I don't want to have to kill her. I've grown quite fond of having her around. It would sadden me if I had to order her death. That's where you come in."

"I'm afraid I don't understand." Dale told his boss.

"I need you to keep an eye on her—monitor her behavior and what she says. I need to know if she starts asking questions about anything I've told her about her past as well as any inquiries she makes about other information from her past." Vincent explained.

He knew from their conversation earlier that she was eager to know more about her past. But that simply couldn't happen. He had to make sure of it. "Do you understand now?"

Dale nodded his head. "Yes sir."

"Has she said anything to you about wanting to know more about her past?" Vincent asked, hoping to find out if she was going to let this topic drop or if she was as obsessed with digging around for more info as he suspected.

"No." Dale lied. "She hasn't said anything to me about it. But I will keep an eye on her." He knew lying to Vincent could cost him his life but he didn't want to get her in trouble.

Truthfully, he felt bad for her. Being with the Joker couldn't have been an easy life—especially after the torture and attempts to kill her. Then just when she was going to get some peace, Vincent saves her and practically brainwashes her to be his loyal employee/lover.

Sometimes he wondered if the universe was just out to get her or something because he had never known someone to have such bad luck. So even though it was a bad idea to lie to Vincent, he felt like he had to. After all, he had convinced her not to look into her past any more, so the problem was solved.

"Good." Vincent told him. "That's all. You can go now."

"Yes sir." Dale replied, eager to get away.

* * *

Angela stayed underneath the warm water, letting the liquid wash away some of the stress from the day. Although she would never admit it to anyone, she hated her new life. She hated being a hit-woman, she hated the people around her, and she even hated Vincent in many ways.

Sure, he was nice to her and he had saved her life. But there was something she didn't quite trust about him. She knew the moment she laid eyes on him in the hospital room down in the Caribbean that there was something not right about the story he fed her. At that point though she was so tired and felt like she had no other choice but to go with him and at least pretend like she believed him.

In all honesty though, she wondered just how much of the stuff he told her was truth and how much of it was a bunch of lies.

Given no real other alternative though, she tried to go along with what he told her about her life. For the past ten months she's tried her hardest to become accustomed to her new life and be the kind of person Vincent was telling her to be. But it never felt right. There was always something that felt wrong about it—something that made her want to scream and run away.

Lately she had been questioning the validity of everything he had been telling her. She knew there were things about her past that she wasn't being told. And it wasn't because of woman's intuition like she told Dale.

She had been having moments of déjà vu and flashes of things that she thought were memories. They were often short, quick flashes, but they were enough to make her curious. Plus there were also her dreams. Those were slightly disturbing and she wasn't sure if they were just her imagination working overtime or if they were indeed memories trying to resurface.

She told Dale that she would drop it and not pursue any more information on her past, but she truly had no intention of doing that. Even if she was going to end up regretting it later, she was going to find out the truth about her past. She had to for her own sanity.

She just didn't know how yet.


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Another Way To Die

Fandom: Post-Dark Knight

Rating: M

Pairing: I'll never tell…well at least not for a few chapters anyway!

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the Batman characters. (Except for the ones I've created!)

A/N: Thanks to everyone leaving reviews and reading this story. I appreciate it a lot!

Chapter Four

A few days later, Bruce was still looking over the papers and video he had on Vincent and his organization. He knew that Gordon was going to try and send another cop into Vincent's organization but wasn't sure that was going to help much. He had agreed to look after Locke and try his best to protect him, but even he had his limits. He couldn't guarantee Locke's safety 100%.

The more he thought about it the more he realized that they needed someone who was already on the inside to help them. They needed someone who would be willing to snitch. It was an idea that he had entertained a while ago but never brought up to Gordon because he didn't think it would work.

He was aware that the District Attorney's office didn't have a good track record with getting mob guys to snitch on their organizations. Usually what happened was the guys ended up dead before the trial got started or they recanted their stories. Either way, it never ended well and the D.A.'s office looked like idiots.

But as he studied Vincent's organization he began to sense that maybe they could find someone who would be willing to snitch on the organization.

"What's going on in that head of yours now?" Alfred asked his younger friend as he brought over a hot bowl of soup.

"Do you think that there is any way that we could successfully get someone in Vincent's organization to become a snitch?" Bruce asked, wanting to get Alfred's opinion.

"Depends on who they are and if they are happy with their life." Alfred replied. "Did you have someone particular in mind?"

"Actually, yes." Bruce replied, pulling up a surveillance video and freezing one of the blurry frames. "Her."

"Who is that?" Alfred asked. The blurry picture didn't let him take a good look at the woman on the screen.

"That," Bruce said as he picked up her folder and opened it, "is Vincent's fiancée."

"A fiancée?" Alfred chuckled. "Poor girl. What do you know about her?" Alfred asked.

"Unfortunately, not much." Bruce replied. "She was first seen with him in public about six months ago. Ironically, her name is Angela."

Alfred couldn't help but chuckle again. "That is ironic."

"I can't find much on her life before she started to appear on Vincent's arm. There's only a small amount of information floating around about her." Bruce explained.

"That's odd." Alfred noted. "Do you have any pictures of her that aren't blurry?"

"Not really." Bruce shook his head. "There aren't many pictures of her either. He keeps her hidden most of the time."

"That is very odd." Alfred couldn't help but wonder why Vincent would keep her hidden away. Although the picture was blurry, she seemed like an attractive woman. Perhaps there was something about her that he was trying to keep a secret.

"I think she may be the key to undermining his whole organization." Bruce concluded.

"Indeed, you should never underestimate the ability of a woman to destroy a man." Alfred interjected. "But if she is usually sequestered, then how are you going to get to her?"

"I was thinking that Locke could try to seek her out and get more information from her." Bruce explained. "Then perhaps he can gain her trust and we can move forward from there."

"It's a dangerous plan. Do you think Locke can do it?" Alfred asked.

"I hope so." Bruce sighed. "Something in my gut is telling me that this woman is extremely important."

* * *

Angela walked around Vincent's office, waiting impatiently for him to arrive. He was overseeing a shipment down on the docks and had asked for her to meet him here, saying he would be by when he was done. He told her to meet him at 9 pm, but it was already 10 and he had yet to show up.

She ran her finger up against the edge of his desk as she walked past it for what seemed like the millionth time and let herself get lost in her own thoughts. Without warning she had a flash of what she thought could be a memory.

"_I'm just a girl with a business proposition for you." She told him._

_Vincent smiled. "Look, you're very attractive and normally I would be all over you without a second thought. But tonight's not a good night for me. Why don't you come back some other time?"_

_She laughed, almost insulted by his insinuation. "I think you misunderstood me. I didn't come here to try and sleep with you. I have no interest in ever doing that. I have a very legitimate business proposition for you."_

_It was his turn to laugh now. "What kind of business proposition could someone like you have for someone like me?"_

"_The kind you won't be able to say no to." She answered coolly._

"_Ok." He smiled. "You have me intrigued. What is this business proposition you have for me?"_

"_Well you must have heard by now about the Joker's escape from Arkham." She started._

"_Yes." Vincent nodded. "I would have to be living under a rock to not know that. Damn clown, he's ruining this city for criminals like me."_

"_Well what would you say if I had a way to get rid of him for good?" She asked._

_He decided to humor her. "And just how would you do that?"_

"_I'd kill him." She explained._

She was intrigued and confused by this. What she remembered took place in this very room between her and Vincent. But was it their first meeting? Was her attempt on the Joker's life her first assignment with him?

And why was she so intent on getting rid of the Joker? She had heard about the Joker and his reign of terror over Gotham City. Tales of his crimes were almost legendary. But why would she seek out Vincent to help her kill the Joker?

Did it have something to do with the weird dreams she had been having?

It didn't make much sense to her, but at least it was another piece of the puzzle for her.

"Sweetheart? Did you hear me?" Vincent asked, gently touching her arm.

She shook herself from her reverie and looked over at Vincent, forcing a smile onto her face. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I was just saying hello." He repeated. "Are you ok? You looked like you were a million miles away."

"No." She shook her head. "I'm fine. I was just letting my mind wander."

"Well that can be a dangerous thing." He joked.

"Yeah." She laughed. "So did the shipment come in alright?"

"Yes." Vincent nodded with a smile. "And I'm glad that neither Batman nor the police showed up. This shipment was important."

"I'm glad." She told him, even though she honestly couldn't care less. "So why did you want me to meet you here?"

"I wanted to talk to you about the new guys I have coming into the organization tomorrow. I am going to set them up as your security detail." He explained.

"You're replacing Dale and the others?" She asked, shocked by this news.

"Dale will still be your main security chief. The others will be reassigned for the time being." Vincent clarified.

"I still don't understand why you think I need a security detail in the first place." She grumbled. "I mean, I'm a hit-woman. I can take of myself."

"I know you can, darling." He patronized her, going over and kissing her cheek. "It's not a question of whether or not you can protect yourself. It's the fact that you shouldn't have to. Plus, you're my fiancée. My enemies know that and I don't want to take any risks with you getting hurt because of me. We've had this discussion several times."

"I know." She sighed. "I just think it's silly."

"Please just humor me?" He asked.

"Fine." She relented, not wanting to get into an argument over this right now. "So they will be my new security detail?"

"Yes." He nodded. "And I want you to sniff out the cop."

"What if there isn't a cop?" She wondered out-loud.

"Oh I doubt that." Vincent laughed. "I doubt that the police are going to give up on trying to get a cop into my organization. The police and Batman have been out for my blood for the past year and I don't see that changing anytime soon. No, they will continue to send in men."

"Ok." She nodded. "Then I'll do my best."

"Excellent." He smiled. "I knew I could count on you."

* * *

"Locke will be entering Maroni's organization tomorrow." Gordon briefed Batman as the three of them stood on the roof of the MCU building.

"Are you ready?" Bruce asked.

"I think so." Locke nodded his head. "It helps knowing you'll be keeping an eye out on things."

"I'll do my best." Bruce promised. "There's something I wanted to run past you both. I think we need to go in another direction to bring down Maroni's organization."

"What kind of new direction?" Gordon asked, eager to hear Batman's new idea.

Bruce took out a picture of Angela and gave it to them. "This is Angela, Vincent's fiancée. I think we should try to get her to turn on Vincent."

"You mean, use her as a mole?" Gordon asked, thinking about it carefully.

"Yes." Bruce answered.

"Do you think she will do it?" Locke asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Gordon noted.

"So you want me to try and get close to her?" Locke asked hesitantly. That might be hard. Depending on what job he got in Vincent's organization, he might not have many opportunities to bump into her.

"Yes." Bruce replied. "If you get the chance, talk to her and see if there is any way she might be willing to sell him out."

Locke looked over to Gordon. "I'll try but I can't guarantee anything." Locke replied, wanting to be honest.

"Just do your best." Gordon replied. "We know that you might not be exposed to her often, depending on what job you're given."

"So what if I'm given a job where I don't see her?" Locke asked, looking back at where Batman had been standing, only to find that Batman had already left.

"I really hate it when he does that." Locke complained.

"Really?" Gordon laughed. "I've gotten used to it."


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Another Way To Die

Fandom: Post-Dark Knight

Rating: M

Pairing: I'll never tell…well at least not for a few chapters anyway!

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the Batman characters. (Except for the ones I've created!)

A/N: Thanks for the kind reviews and also to everyone reading this story! Enjoy!

Chapter Five

"All of you are going to be part of the security detail for Vincent's fiancée, Angela." Dale told the three new guys, carefully sizing them up to see if he could figure out which was the cop. Vincent was convinced that one of them was going to be an undercover cop and had entrusted Angela with the task of figuring out which one it was.

The guys standing in front of him were Anthony, Michael and Patrick. Just by looking at them he could tell that Patrick wasn't the cop. He had the hardened criminal stare that only someone who had been in and out of jail repeatedly would possess. So his suspicions rested on Anthony and Michael.

He went through and told them all their assignments and then decided that it was time to call Angela into the room and have her meet them. "Angela, can you please come down to meet the new guys?" He asked when she answered her phone.

"Sure." She replied. "I'll be right down."

True to her word, it was only a few moments between the time he hung up his phone and when he saw her enter the room. She smiled at him and walked over, standing next to him and looking over the guys.

"So these are the new guys?" She asked, looking at each one suspiciously.

"Yes." Dale replied. "This is Anthony, Michael and Patrick. Patrick and Michael are going to be keeping watch over the property and Anthony is going be driving you around."

She leaned in closer to him and whispered so that no one else would hear. "So what are you going to be doing?"

"I'll be here with the guys. Vincent wants to put the guys on a rotating schedule. Each guy will get some time as your driver so that you can get to know them." He whispered back.

She now understood but was slightly saddened by the fact that Dale wouldn't be driving her again until she figured out who the cop was. Dale was the only one she even remotely trusted, and she didn't even trust him completely.

"Well it's nice to meet all of you." She smiled, turning to Dale again. "I was actually going to go out and get lunch. So I guess Anthony should be who I drag with me?"

Dale nodded.

"Ok." She sighed, looking over at Anthony. "Ready?"

"Yes, Miss." Anthony replied sheepishly, following her out of the house.

* * *

Vincent stared out of his window, thinking back on the conversation he just had with Dale.

"_I don't mean to disrespect you boss, but are you sure that having Angela sniff out the cop is such a good idea?" Dale asked hesitantly. "What if the cop recognizes her as Lacy?" _

"_They won't." Vincent shook his head and chuckled. "Trust me." _

"_But…" Dale countered. _

"_I said it won't be a problem!" Vincent interrupted. "Now get back to work." _

He could understand why Dale thought that it might be risky exposing Angela to a cop. But he didn't think it would be a problem because of what had happened in the Caribbean. He was actually quite proud of himself for what he had done to Lacy.

He stepped away from the window and sat in his chair, leaning back with a grin on his face as he remembered what happened the night of the warehouse explosion ten months ago.

_Vincent was in a warehouse not too far away from the one Angela had been using to store the Joker. In front of him was a collection of monitors and to his left was Dale. In the next room were some of his men, who each had their own piece of arm candy. _

"_It was a good idea to set up surveillance equipment inside the warehouse." Dale complimented Vincent._

"_I know." Vincent dismissed the compliment. Dale had been the only one of the Joker's men that he didn't send to Commissioner Gordon, per Angela's request. She seemed to have a soft spot for Dale and wanted him to become a member of Vincent's organization. He begrudgingly agreed. _

_Thanks to his smart thinking, he was able to see and hear everything that was going on between Angela and the Joker. Their interactions were enjoyable to watch, but the most interesting piece of information was the tidbit he found out about Batman's secret identity. Well, now it wasn't much of a secret. _

"_I still can't believe that Bruce Wayne is Batman." Vincent marveled. "It explains so much." _

"_Yeah." Dale rolled his eyes. He wasn't so impressed by the revelation, considering that he already knew about it. He had found out a couple of years ago while keeping surveillance over Lacy's apartment. "It's quite a shocker." _

"_Wait a minute…" Vincent said, leaning in to watch the monitors more closely. It appeared that the Joker had broken free of his restraints and now had Angela pinned to the ground. _

"_We should go help her!" Dale exclaimed, heading for the door. _

"_Don't you dare!" Vincent called out, watching the monitors intently. _

"_But he's going to kill her." Dale pointed out. _

_  
"Not necessarily." Vincent replied. "She's not going to go down without a fight." _

"_But we should still help her." Dale pleaded. _

_Vincent was silent for a moment, watching the screen and listening to the conversation. "Well, it looks like Angela wishes to double-cross me." _

"_How so?" Dale asked, walking closer to the monitors. _

"_She's planning on blowing herself up with the Joker." Vincent explained. His fist clenched and his jaw tightened. No one double-crosses or makes him look like a fool and gets away with it. No, she would pay. "Go into the other room and bring me one of the women." He commanded as a plan formed in his head. "And hurry up!" _

It had been pure luck that he was able to find Angela in the burning rubble of the warehouse and pull her out, replacing her with one of the women servicing his men. He knew that Bruce Wayne/Batman wouldn't believe that Angela was dead if there wasn't a body found. And luckily the fire would prevent any kind of DNA testing so he was in the free and clear with that.

After pulling her out of the rubble, he wasn't surprised to see that she had cuts and scrapes all over her body from the explosion. She also seemed to have a bad head injury and a piece of metal stuck in her left leg. He wasn't even sure if she was going to make it.

But he had Dale accompany her to a hospital on a small island in the Caribbean that he owned. He stuck around Gotham for a day before heading down to check on her.

He was also lucky to have such a skilled doctor working for him. Dr. Bombay was an accomplished plastic surgeon, yet also had enough expertise to handle Angela's condition.

He had made sure that Dr. Bombay knew exactly what he was supposed to do for her once she got to his hospital. First he had Dr. Bombay stabilize her condition and monitor her head wound. Once that was done, he was supposed to work on making the scars on her stomach less pronounced and noticeable. Then he had the task of creating a new face for her.

Granted, she didn't need an entirely new face. Dr. Bombay had managed to create the same effect as having a new face just by changing her nose and some other key facial features, like her cheekbones, chin and around the eyes. He did a wonderful job of changing her face so that she was barely recognizable but still stunningly beautiful.

Finally, he was charged with destroying her memory. To do this, he used an experimental drug that works as a memory suppressant. So far it had been working perfectly. The only problem was finding new ways to slip it into her food or drink without her noticing. But that was Dale's responsibility.

Dale had asked him once why he went to so much trouble to change her. He still remembered his answer.

"_She agreed to a plan, knowing my terms but then essentially tried to renege on her end of the bargain at the last minute. No one double-crosses me and gets away with it." _

"_But why change her face and destroy her memory?" Dale questioned. _

"_It's simple." He explained. "I can make her into anything I want her to be now. I know at first I just pulled her from the warehouse because I didn't want to be made to look like a fool but now I see that it was the best thing that could have happened. With our original agreement I was only going to get one night with her." _

_He smiled. "Now I get her whenever I want. It's a wonderful turn of events." _

So when Dale worried about her being in the company of a cop, he didn't really think it would be a problem. There was only a small chance that anyone would be able to recognize her the way she was now.

* * *

The car ride back from the restaurant was silent as Locke continued to reflect over his current assignments. There was his assignment from Commissioner Gordon to infiltrate Maroni's organization, Batman's assignment to try and get Maroni's fiancée to turn on him, and Maroni's assignment to protect his fiancée.

He was glad though that he was lucky enough to be given the assignment of being on Angela's security detail. That would ensure that he was able to get some time with her and maybe convince her to join forces with the police. That is of course, if he didn't end up dead from being undercover.

Becoming Anthony hadn't been too difficult. Gordon had made sure that he had the appropriate papers and documents backing up his new identity. It also hadn't been too difficult to join Maroni's crew, although he had a feeling it was only because he was interested in seeing if the police would send in yet another undercover cop.

There had been rumors on the street that Vincent was getting boastful about how many undercover cops his hitman had taken out and was trying to see how many deaths it would take before the cops learned their lesson. That kind of talk only made him more nervous about this assignment.

Compounding his nervousness was the fact that Angela had chosen to sit next to him in the front passenger seat. She was particularly quiet as she stared out the window and he wasn't sure if he should be the one to break the silence or not. Luckily, she must have decided to do it for him.

"So, your name is Anthony?" She asked, breaking the silence and looking over at him. She knew that it was her assignment to get to know these guys and figured she might as well start now.

"Yes." He nodded. "But you can call me Tony."

"Ok, Tony." She smiled. "What made you want to get into this line of work?"

"Bad childhood." He answered, hoping she wouldn't pry any further. It wasn't that he didn't have a good back-story to tell her, he just didn't want to have to lie.

She didn't feel it was her place to pry into his past life that deeply. She looked down at the Styrofoam box in her hands and when they reached a red light she gave it to him. "I brought you some dessert from the restaurant. Thought you might like some chocolate cake. They make the best chocolate cake in the city."

"Thanks." He smiled, taking the box. "That was very nice of you."

"Don't worry about it." She shrugged. "Besides, I used Vincent's money anyway."

The rest of the car ride back to her home was anything but quiet, with both of them talking about silly things and sharing a few laughs. As he pulled into the driveway he started to think that maybe this assignment wasn't going to be as bad as he thought.


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Another Way To Die

Fandom: Post-Dark Knight

Rating: M

Pairing: I'll never tell…well at least not for a few chapters anyway!

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the Batman characters. (Except for the ones I've created!)

A/N: Sorry for the long delay in getting this chapter out. (Personal drama which doesn't need to be spoken of.) Anyway, just know that I haven't abandoned this story and it will be completed! Thanks!

Chapter Six

"Have you managed to find out anything yet?" Vincent asked Angela as they shared a candle-light diner about a week later.

"I haven't found out anything that would help identify the undercover cop." She answered, sipping the champagne.

"But you are working on it, right?" He asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"Yes." She nodded, getting frustrated by the way he asked the question. "Of course I am. I don't want to let you down."

"I know that." He assured her, reaching out to grab a hold of her hand across the table. He could tell that she didn't really appreciate his questioning so he decided he needed to smooth everything over. "I didn't mean to imply that you did. I simply get impatient sometimes. Forgive me?"

"Of course." She replied. Although she told him that she had been working on it, the truth was that she hadn't been working that hard on her assignment. All she had been doing was getting to know the guys.

Patrick wasn't too nice. She doubted that he was the cop. He was far too mean and surly to be a cop. Besides, there was something in his eyes that told her not to mess with him or else she'd end up dead. He had crazy eyes. Besides that, he had been in jail for carjacking, several robberies and an attempted murder. Apparently he found his girlfriend cheating on him with his brother and decided to teach her a lesson by throwing her off of a five-story building.

The attempted murder was something he seemed too proud about. She could tell by the way his eyes shined with pride when he told the story. No, there was no way he was the cop.

Michael was relatively nice, though he seemed afraid of her. He barely said two words to her when he was assigned to be her driver. It was almost like he was afraid if he said the wrong thing she would have Vincent kill him. Little did he know that if he said the wrong thing she would kill him herself. It was possible that he was the cop.

Then there was Anthony or Tony as he liked to be called. She couldn't rule him out as the cop and that saddened her. He was nice to her and didn't treat her like she was a child, as Dale and Vincent tended to do sometimes. She enjoyed the times he drove her around and could easily see herself becoming friends with her. She just hoped he wasn't the cop.

"Angela, there's something I was hoping to talk to you about." Vincent said, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"Ok. What did you want to talk about?" She asked.

"Well, I was thinking that now might be a good time to talk about our relationship." He said, taking a drink of his champagne.

"What about our relationship?" She asked.

"Well, I know that you're not ready to consider going through with the wedding yet, but I thought that perhaps it might be time for you to move in with me."

She was surprised that he was asking about this and wasn't sure what to say next. "You want to talk about living together?"

"If that's ok with you." He told her.

"I guess." She nodded, unsure how to get out of this conversation. To her dismay there didn't seem to be any way to get out of this conversation. If she told him she didn't want to talk about it, which she didn't, he would simply get curious about why she didn't want to talk about it. That would lead to the long discussion about their relationship that she hoped to avoid in the first place. So it was easier to go along with this.

"Well, we had been engaged for over a year before the accident." He lied. "And we were living together before the accident. In fact, you moved in with me less than two months after we started our relationship. What are your thoughts on it?"

"I don't know." She replied honestly. "I haven't thought too much about it."

"I guess I should first ask if you even want to get married?" The truth was he didn't really care when they got married. What he was trying to figure out from this conversation was how dedicated she was to him.

"Of course I do." She told him, hoping he couldn't tell that it was a half-truth, half-lie. The truth was that she wanted to get married. But she wasn't sure she wanted to get married to him. "Why would you ask something like that?"

Her dreams had become more and more vivid and confusing. There were still dreams about the Joker, but there were also dreams about another guy. The other guy was nice and always made her feel important. He looked familiar and she realized that she had seen him on television and in newspapers. After the second dream she had with him she started doing some investigating on her computer and found out that the guy from her dreams was billionaire Bruce Wayne.

She couldn't remember knowing Bruce Wayne and couldn't figure out how she would even cross paths with someone like him. It wasn't like they traveled in the same social circles. So why was she dreaming about him?

She couldn't figure out if her dreams of him were lost memories that were coming out or if she just had an over-active imagination. After all, Bruce Wayne was frequently on the cover of gossip magazines and television news shows.

But that was a different problem. She had to focus back on Vincent for now. Vincent had been incredibly patient with her and kind too, giving her a house to call her own, more money than she could ever spend and filling in the missing pieces of her life—though she wasn't sure she could trust him.

And she certainly didn't love him.

It wasn't anything in particular he did to make her not love him. In fact, he had seemingly been doing everything he could to get her to fall in love with him. But the feelings just weren't there. True, he was fairly attractive and intelligent. He could be extremely kind and charming, yet also knew when to be ruthless.

He was extremely good at being ruthless and was in fact a very dangerous man. She didn't really want to cross him after knowing first-hand what happens to those who do.

Still, she wasn't sure she wanted to marry him, and wasn't sure she wanted to move in with him because then the next step would be a wedding. She didn't love him and didn't trust him. So if she married him it would be because of feelings of misplaced obligation. She had no idea how she was going to get out of this More importantly, was there even a way to get out of this?

"I guess I'm just wondering if you want to be with me or not." Vincent replied. "I understand that you are hesitant because of your memory loss, but it's been almost a year. We've spent a lot of time together in these past months so we're not strangers anymore."

"I simply don't understand what the rush is." She told him with a smile.

"I'm not trying to seem impatient." He assured her. "I've had no problem giving you some space and letting you live in your own place while you get re-adjusted to your life. But, like I said before, it's almost been a year and I was just wondering how much longer you will need."

"I honestly don't know." She told him, hoping he didn't get too upset by that answer.

"Sometimes it seems like you're keeping me at arms length." He noted.

"I don't mean to make you feel like that." She told him after a short pause. "That's the last thing I mean to do. It's just difficult. I know you have been patient with me and I appreciate that a lot, but you don't know what it's like to be me."

She paused for another moment before continuing. "I mean, you have all your memories from your life, even the bad ones that you wish you could forget. I don't have that. I just have memories from the past few months and then the few flashes I occasionally get. But even the flashes aren't necessarily memories. They could just be my imagination playing tricks on me. So I have to rely on other people to tell me about myself—my likes, my dislikes, my past. It's overwhelming and not fair."

"I realize that…" He started to say.

"And you have been wonderful about filling in the blanks for me but it's not the same. And although I probably should just let it go and move on with my life, it's easier said than done." She interrupted him to finish her thought.

"Well I'm not going to force you to move in with me." He finally responded after a moment of reflection. "But will you please promise me that you will consider it?"

"I can do that." She smiled. "I promise I'll think about it."

He smiled back, even though he wasn't happy about the way this conversation had gone. Although she was hiding it well, she wasn't excited or even happy about the prospect of moving in with him or marrying him. That made him very nervous.

He wanted, needed her to be under his control if his plans were going to work. He couldn't afford to have her anything less than completely dedicated to him. He was going to have to think of a way to get her back to thinking he was her savior again, like she did right after the warehouse explosion. "Good. That's all I ask of you."

* * *

"So what have you found out?" Gordon asked Locke as they stood on the rooftop with Batman that night.

"Not much." Locke replied. "But I am getting closer to Angela and I think she's starting to think of me as a friend."

"Good." Gordon nodded. "That's good work."

"Thanks." Locke gave his boss a small smile.

"Remember to be careful though." Batman warned. "We don't know for sure how loyal she is to Vincent and one wrong word could trigger problems."

"Believe me; I'm well aware of the risks." Locke sighed.


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Another Way To Die

Fandom: Post-Dark Knight

Rating: M

Pairing: I'll never tell…well at least not for a few chapters anyway!

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the Batman characters. (Except for the ones I've created!)

A/N: Thanks to everyone still reading/reviewing this story! It means a lot to me.

Chapter Seven

Locke was driving Angela around the next day. It had been a busy day because she had been to nearly every upscale boutique and store in downtown Gotham, buying so many new clothes he wondered if she would ever be able to wear them all. The trunk was full of boxes and bags, as was the back seat.

After shopping, he had taken her to eat and then she asked if he could just drive around for a while on the outskirts of the city because she didn't want to go home yet. He thought it was an odd request, but honored it, realizing it would give him more time to gain her trust.

He felt bad about using her in this way. After all, she seemed like a good woman—a troubled woman, but one with a good heart. So it surprised him all the more that she was involved with someone like Vincent. It just didn't make sense to him. But he couldn't flat out ask her about it. That would raise too many suspicions.

Still, he felt bad that he was befriending her so the sole purpose of enlisting her help to go against Vincent. It wasn't fair to her. The only way he could rationalize his guilt was by telling himself that she was involved with Vincent so she opened herself up to these kinds of situations.

He had been driving for about twenty minutes and looked over from time to time at Angela. She was staring out the window, looking deep in thought about something. She hadn't said a word since requesting that he continue driving.

He didn't know whether or not to say anything to her, but thankfully didn't have to worry about that because she soon spoke.

"What's your earliest memory?" She asked, still staring out the window.

"I don't know." He shrugged, thinking about it for a moment. "I guess I had to be really young—maybe three or four. I was in the grocery store with my mom and I was sitting in the front seat of the car. We were going down the cereal aisle and I kept putting boxes of Lucky Charms in the cart while she wasn't looking. She finally noticed and laughed before taking them out of the cart and telling me that it wasn't nice to do things behind her back. If I wanted cereal I needed to ask for it."

"Sounds like you had a really nice mother." She replied sadly, looking over at him.

"She was." He nodded.

"Was?" She inquired.

"Oh. She died when I was ten." He explained. "Drunk driver hit her car and she flew right into a tree."

"I'm sorry to hear that." She told him, meaning every word of it. Something inside told her that she could empathize with him on some level about the loss of his mother. Perhaps she too had lost her mother? She couldn't remember, but that didn't mean anything anymore.

"Thanks." He replied. It was the circumstances surrounding his mother's death that prompted him to become a police officer. But he couldn't tell that to her. So he kept quiet about himself and focused the spotlight back onto her. "What's your earliest memory?"

She snorted. "Unfortunately I don't have quite as good of a memory as you. It's impressive that you can remember something so detailed from your younger years."

"That's ok." He assured her. "Not everyone can remember things from their first few years. So when is your earliest memory? Age six? Eight?"

"Try ten months ago." She answered softly.

He laughed, thinking it was a joke. But when he saw her face he realized it was no joke. "You're serious."

"Yep." She sighed. "I was in a very bad car crash about ten months ago and don't remember anything that happened before that."

"That's horrible." He stated. "So you have no idea what your life was like before ten months ago?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "All I have is what Vincent tells me and little flashes of what could either be memories or just imagination running wild. I have absolutely no clue as to who I am."

"Wow." He wasn't sure what to say about that. But it did make more sense in some ways. They had been unable to find out anything substantial about Angela dating back farther than ten months. To them, it seemed like she had suddenly appeared out of thin air one day.

And perhaps she had.

This was definitely something he needed to bring to Commissioner Gordon's attention. "So then what is your earliest memory?"

"I remember waking up in a hospital room in the Caribbean. The room was empty and I just kept thinking that I needed to see him to tell him I was ok and that I had finally won." She explained.

"Who was 'him'?" He asked. "Vincent?"

"I guess." She shrugged. "But I have no idea what I thought I had won. Vincent later told me that I was in the car accident because one of his enemies had tried to kill me. So maybe I wanted to tell Vincent that I had won against the guy trying to kill me or something."

"That's weird." He commented.

"Indeed." She agreed.

"I can't imagine what it would feel like to have no idea who I am." He said.

"It's not pleasant." She laughed.

"But at least you can re-invent yourself." He told her, trying to find a positive from her experience.

"Yeah, you'd think that, but not so much." She laughed again. "If Vincent had his way, I would behave and feel the same I did before the accident. But it's not that simple. You can't tell someone who they were and expect them to carry on without any difficulty."

"Don't get me wrong…Vincent has been good to me." She sighed. "But there's something about him that makes me not trust everything he says."

"I'm sorry." He said, unsure what else he could say. He hated the fact that she was going through something like this but this car ride had been extremely informative. It was quite possible that, if handled properly, Angela could consider joining the police and helping them take Vincent down.

He would have to consult with Commissioner Gordon and Batman to see what they wanted him to do next.

"Oh well." She shrugged. "I guess everyone has their own problems."

"Yeah." He agreed.

"Look, I can trust you not to say anything to anyone about this, right?" She asked, hoping she was right to be trusting him. As far as she knew, only a few people knew about her memory loss and she wanted to keep it that way. "If Vincent were to know that I didn't trust him completely…"

"You don't have to worry about it." He assured her with a small smile. "I wouldn't betray your confidence like that. Vincent will never know that you said anything to me."

"Thanks." She returned his smile with one of her own. "I appreciate it."

* * *

"One of these days I'm going to stop letting people order me around." A man sighed as he looked over his papers. He had been working on his latest project for months now, and hoped that his efforts were going to pay off. He sighed one more time as he changed one of the measurements on the paper.

It had been several months since the fateful day that he received his latest assignment. He still wished he had been able to say no but there was no way he could refuse.

"So if I change this combination and add more of the calcium channel blockers and Neotropin, while decreasing the amount of Donepezil it might work better…" He erased his earlier work and made those changes on the paper.

"Are you still talking to yourself?" The Joker asked, rolling his eyes as he entered the room. "It's very annoying."

"Well too bad." Crane told him, not bothering to look over at his uninvited houseguest. "If you want me to complete this job you'll have to deal with me talking to myself. It's how I work. I concentrate better like this. If you don't like it, then there is the door. You're more than welcome to find different accommodations."

"Nah." The Joker shook his head. "I kind of like this place." He laughed. "Besides, I can't be seen around town. You know, because I'm supposed to be dead."

Crane stopped working for a moment and turned to face the Joker, who had made himself comfortable on the couch and was trying to find the television remote. "I'm still not clear on how it is that you managed to escape that warehouse explosion."

"You don't have to be clear on that." He retorted. "It's none of your business."

Crane took a good look at the Joker. He had somehow gotten out of the warehouse alive, but not without damage. He had burns on his hands and legs. There was also a burn scar on his face, starting on the top center of his forehead and running across his forehead to the right.

The Joker continued to talk. "I'm not paying you to understand it. I'm paying you to make Lacy's memory come back and reverse the work of that quack Dr. Bombay."

"I definitely don't understand why you're trying to reverse her memory loss. You two have been trying to kill each other for awhile now. Why not kill her now when she's vulnerable?"

He cackled loudly. "You see, Crane, that's why you've failed to be anything other than a mad scientist. You have no sense of theatricality. What fun would it be to kill her when she doesn't understand why I'm killing her?"

He got up and started to pace around the room. "No. We're way past the stage of just killing each other. This time it's going to be different. This time I'm going to make sure that she remembers every single thing we've done to each other and then I'm going to take everything away from her."

Crane sighed as he turned back around to face his papers, now sorry he asked.

"So how is it coming? Have you found a way to reverse Dr. Bombay's memory loss?" The Joker asked, growing impatient. He had been cooped up in Crane's small apartment for far too long while the doctor worked on finding a way to counteract Lacy's memory loss.

"I think I might have found something that will work." Crane answered. Dr. Bombay was well known in Crane's social circle for claiming to have manufactured a chemical that, when administered daily, would suppress memories. Initially, the patient would undergo a series of shock treatments aimed at destroying memory cells, and the pills were to make sure that the memory cells never recuperated.

It was a masterful concoction, one that Crane was envious of in many ways. When the Joker came to him and explained Lacy's situation, he had to admit that he was intrigued about trying to recreate Bombay's concoction so that he could counter-act it.

If he could pull this off, he might be able to gain some much-needed credibility amongst his social circle. They already saw him as a failure and an embarrassment towards them because of the fear toxin and the reprogramming fiascos.

This was his way back into their good graces. If he could pull this off he would no longer have to take other people's orders. He would be able to do whatever he wanted again. Maybe he would work on the fear toxin again and make it more potent.

He had been experimenting with the formula and trying it out on some of the elderly homeless people on the streets, with mixed results. But this newest formula seemed like it might be the answer he was looking for.

"I just need to test it out, but I'm optimistic about it." Crane told him.

"Good," the Joker smiled, "because I'm getting tired of staying in seclusion. It's time for me to get back out there and play again."


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Another Way To Die

Fandom: Post-Dark Knight

Rating: M

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the Batman characters. (Except for the ones I've created!)

A/N: Ok, so I basically suck at updating. I know. Things in my personal life came up and zapped all of the creativity out of me. Thankfully it is slowly coming back so I hope to finish this story within the next month or so. Hopefully there is still an audience out there for this story! Please review and let me know what you think!

Also, I am looking for a beta reader for another Batman story I am working on. It's different than this one. It's a Bruce/OC story. Let me know if you are interested in helping me with that story! :)

Chapter Eight

"So what are you trying to tell us?" Gordon asked Locke as he and Batman stood on the roof of the MCU building that night.

"Angela, Vincent's fiancée, has no memory of her life prior to ten months ago." Locke reported. "She told me about it today. Apparently he told her she was in a bad car crash in the Caribbean and when she woke up she had no memory of who she was."

"Interesting." Gordon mused. "I guess it partially explains why we can't find any information on her prior to ten months ago, but it also leads to more questions. Like, what happened to her before that and who was she?"

"My guess is that she isn't who Vincent told her she is." Locke told them. "She's not happy and doesn't trust Vincent. I think she might be willing to turn state's evidence against him if it's handled properly."

Gordon nodded. "That would be wonderful if we could get her on our side." He looked over at Batman, who had been silent throughout this conversation. "What are your thoughts on this?"

"I think it's an interesting development and we need to explore it some more." Bruce said, being brought out of his thoughts. He found it ironic that Vincent would have a fiancée that lost her memory around the same time as Lacy died. He also found it ironic that the woman's name was Angela, given the fact that was the name Lacy had used when she dealt with him previously. Factor in the complete lack of information they could dig up on Angela prior to ten months ago and it all started to form a complete picture.

But it wasn't possible. Was it?

Could Lacy have really been alive this whole time and just been brainwashed by Vincent to believe she was someone she wasn't? It seemed too weird but strangely it made sense.

This was something that he would have to investigate, and maybe it was time that Bruce Wayne met this Angela woman.

"I agree." Gordon nodded, turning back to Locke. "Continue to try and gain her trust. If an opening comes up where you feel comfortable, start laying the groundwork to get her to work with us."

"Yes boss." Locke nodded.

* * *

Angela tossed and turned in her sleep that night, having another vivid dream.

"_Well hello, beautiful." The figure stepped a little farther from the shadow. "Good book?"_

"_Not really." She shook her head, turning it to look at him. "But I suppose you didn't really come here to talk about literature. Did you?"_

"_Eh, I thought about joining Oprah's book club, but then I just got so busy with things. And there never seems to be a good time to just sit and read anymore." He mocked her. "There's too much chaos to cause in this city, too many people to torture and kill."_

"_Why are you here?" She asked, setting her wine and book on the nearby end table._

"_Just wanted to see how you are doing," he slowly licked his lips, "check in on things. It's been awhile." _

"_Not long enough." She muttered, getting up and walking over to where he was. The moonlight was illuminating the makeup on his face and she cursed the fact that he was wearing the makeup tonight. He was the reason why she hated red lipstick._

"_Did ya miss me?" He whispered in her ear with a huge smile on his face._

_She bowed her head, not wanting to admit to herself or to him that a small part of her had missed him. Well not the Joker himself, but the tiny part of the Joker that was still her Jack. It was too complicated for her to express verbally that she just ignored the question altogether._

_He walked around her and plopped down in the chair, looking at her eagerly as he did so. With false enthusiasm, he asked, "so what have you been up to in my absence?"_

_She moved over to his chair, standing off to the side of it. "Just working, making an honest living, and obeying the law. But you wouldn't know anything about those things anymore." She replied, putting her hands on her hips. She knew it wasn't right to bait him, but she couldn't refuse._

"_He he he ha ha ha ho ha ha." He laughed at her moxie. She was quite possibly the only person that could talk back to him without major repercussions. "That's right. Of course you are obeying the law, cause you're the good one. That's why we work out so well, my pet." He got up and put his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him. _

_With one quick move, he had a knife out and was lightly moving it across her neck, down to her collarbone. "I'm the bad one," he moved the knife up to her mouth, "and you're the good one."_

"_You never answered my question. Why are you here?" She asked, focusing on what was happening in the present. _

"_I'm here," he licked his lips, "because I heard you got a big promotion at work. I wanted to say congratulations."_

"_Thank you." She replied with a roll of her eyes, knowing that was not the reason he was in her apartment. "Now what's the real reason?"_

"_So smart, so very very smart." He smiled and paused. "You really are so smart. I love that about you." He took the knife away from her skin and placed it back into his breast pocket. Then he grabbed a hold of her hair and pulled her head back slightly. "I've also heard that you are going to a party with Bruce Wayne next week."_

"_It's not a date, if that's what you're wondering." Lacy told him, knowing that he thought it was. "I'm only going to make business contacts."_

"_That may be the truth, but the thing is, I can't allow you to go." He explained. "You see, you belong to me and I don't remember giving you permission to go."_

"_That's because I don't need your permission." She defiantly spat at him, breaking his hold on her and backing away a few feet. "I don't belong to you anymore, contrary to your warped beliefs. You gave up any claim you had on me and how I run my life when you started wearing makeup and calling yourself the Joker. The moment you started killing innocent people you lost all say on what I do or who I do it with."_

"_Watch it my pet," he warned, "I would watch what you say to me very carefully."_

"_Why?" She laughed. "Because you're the big bad Joker? Gotham's number one criminal mastermind? Everyone else in this town may be scared of you, Jack, but I'm not. You should know that by now." She taunted._

"_Don't call me that!" He screamed at her. "That name holds no meaning to me anymore and if you're as smart as I think you are you will stop calling me that."_

Sweat ran down her face as she sat straight up in her bed. She thought back to her latest dream. The funny thing was, she was starting to think they weren't just dreams. She couldn't understand why she would be dreaming about the Joker and Bruce Wayne. There was no reason for that, right? Maybe she was going crazy.

No. Her gut was telling her that these weren't just dreams. Maybe it was time she did some research of her own. Once her breathing calmed down, she laid back down to get some more sleep. This time she didn't have any dreams.

* * *

"Ok. Where to today?" Locke asked as they got into the car.

"I need to go to the library." Angela replied. "And I need you to keep this trip to the library just between us. Ok?"

"Sure." Locke replied, curious about why she was going to the library. He decided to gently probe her for her reason. "But you know if you wanted to read a book, you could just go to Barnes and Noble and buy it."

"I don't want a book though." Angela replied. "I want to look at the newspaper archives."

"Do you want any help?" He offered, wondering what she was looking for in the newspaper archives.

"No thanks." She shook her head. "I can do it myself."

"Ok." Locke nodded. "I can just wait in the front part of the library for you then."

"Thanks." Angela looked over and smiled at him.

An hour and a half later, Angela had compiled a massive list of articles to read through on the computer. Some were of the Joker and some were of Bruce Wayne. Then she also had a list of articles that mentioned both the Joker and Bruce Wayne. That was the one she chose to go through first because it was the smallest.

"_Joker kills local businessman Benjamin Newman at Bruce Wayne Fundraiser."_

There was something about this title that made her pause. Then a flash

"_So you see, Mr. Newman, consultants like me aren't someone to be feared." She smiled. "We're harmless and do minimal damage."_

_Mr. Newman laughed, as did his entourage and Bruce. "Well you've certainly convinced me Miss Williams. Expect me to get in touch with you soon and we'll talk more about what you can do for my company."_

"_Thank you very much." Lacy smiled again, reaching into her purse and giving him her business card. "I look forward to hearing from you."_

"_If you'll excuse us for a moment." Bruce interjected, smiling and pulling Lacy off to the side._

"_This party is wonderful." Lacy complimented Bruce as they made their way over to a corner by the window._

"_It's ok." Bruce shrugged._

"_You don't like fundraisers, do you?" She guessed. While they were talking with other guests, she noticed a slight look of discomfort on his face. To most people it would have been unnoticeable, but she had always been fairly good at reading people._

"_Does it show?" He asked with a laugh._

"_Just a little." She nodded. "Thank you for bringing me here though. I think I may have opened the door to landing some new jobs."_

"_Well the pleasure is all mine I assure you. It's nice to bring someone to this type of party who can actually talk to these people in an intelligent way."_

She shook her head, as if to get rid of the thoughts and images. Was that a memory? Or was her imagination working overtime? If it was a memory, then why was she at a fundraiser with Bruce Wayne? What kind of consultant work did she do? And where does the Joker fit into all of this?

There were too many questions running through her head. She took a few deep breaths and then returned to the article she was reading.

"_The Joker crashed billionaire Bruce Wayne's fundraiser last night for seemingly no reason other than create chaos. Within five minutes of arriving he shot and killed local businessman Benjamin Newman. Then he knocked out Bruce Wayne and engaged in a brief conversation with Wayne's date for the evening, consultant Lacy Williams. It's unclear what the two talked about."_

Lacy Williams. That name sounded so familiar yet she couldn't place it. Was that the name she was using at the time? Was she with Bruce Wayne to try and kill him? None of this made any sense to her.

On a whim, she decided to do an internet search. She typed in 'Lacy Williams', 'Bruce Wayne', and 'Joker'. She took a deep breath, letting her finger hover over the 'enter' key. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what she would find. All she knew was that her list of questions was growing rapidly.


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Another Way To Die

Fandom: Post-Dark Knight

Rating: M

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the Batman characters. (Except for the ones I've created!)

A/N: Thank you to the people reviewing this story and or reading it! We're getting to the place where there will be more action!

Chapter Nine

Bruce sat in the back of the library, covertly watching Angela as she sat at one of the computer bays. He disguised himself by wearing tan pants and a casual shirt, dark glasses and a hat. Before he 'accidentally' ran into Angela, he wanted to observe her. So he followed Locke and was surprised that she was going to a library.

It was unexpected. He didn't know what she was researching, but judging by the way she was engrossed by the computer, she was finding a lot about her topic. Her back was to him, so he had yet to get a good look at her face. But eventually he would meet her.

He wasn't sure what he would find when he met her. A part of him thought that it was possible for her to be Lacy, while another part of him doubted it. As much as he hated the idea that Lacy was dead, at least then she would be at peace. But if Lacy was alive and had been brainwashed to be Angela, then her torment was far from over and he had to do whatever he could to help her.

He continued to flip through the book in his hands, all the while keeping an eye on her.

* * *

Angela continued to let her finger hover over the 'enter' key, finally deciding that she needed to find out more about this Lacy Williams person. So with a deep breath, she pressed the key and waited as dozens of articles popped up on the screen. She scanned the list.

"_Joker has a Wife? Local woman may be married to monster."_

"_Victim or accomplice? Lacy Williams is Gotham's new enemy."_

"_Woman finds co-worker dead in elevator."_

She finally stopped looking at the list and clicked on the article about finding a co-worker in an elevator. She chose that one because a few weeks ago she had a dream about being in an elevator with blood drenching the walls.

"_Police were called to the building where Ace Consulting is located. In the elevator, they found a female employee identified as Lacy Williams huddled on the floor covered in blood. They then found her co-worker, Christopher Stevens, dead and tied to the top of elevator. Miss Williams is reportedly doing consulting work for Wayne Enterprises, which could explain why she was at the recent fundraiser with Bruce Wayne. At that fundraiser, businessman Benjamin Newman was killed by the Joker. Police aren't releasing any more information about this incident and whether or not it could also be linked to the Joker."_

She stared at the article and thought back to her dream. It had felt so real and now that she read this article, she couldn't help but wonder if it really was a dream or a memory. But that would mean…

"This is too weird." She whispered, clicking on another link.

"_Gotham was shocked last night when a sex tape emerged showing the Joker and Lacy Williams. Here is the introduction from the tape: _'_People of Gotham, as you know I've been a part of this fine city for quite a while now and while I feel like I've made a significant impact on you, I also feel you haven't gotten a fair chance to get to know me. That's why I've released this video—so you can see a…different side of me.'_

'_Like I said, in this video you will get to see a different side of me but you will also get to meet the someone special in my life. Some of you may know her, while others may simply know of her given how her name has appeared in the newspapers recently. But I think you all will get a better understanding of her once you have seen this video.' _

'_The woman I am introducing you all to is my lovely wife of countless years. You may know her as Lacy Williams. Anyway, enough talking. I hope this video is as fun for you to watch as it was fun for me to make.'_

_Police are still testing the tape for authenticity, but our sources tell us they believe it is not a fake. They have issued an APB on her and are asking that if anyone sees her they should call the police immediately."_

She couldn't believe what she just read. The Joker had a wife. She realized she needed to see a picture of Lacy Williams. So she went back to the search engine and types in Lacy Williams photo. After pressing 'enter', several images popped up. She clicked the one with Bruce Wayne in it and gasped.

The woman looking back at her from the photo seemed familiar somehow. But everything in her mind was fuzzy and she was starting to get a headache. She sighed and looked at her watch. It was past lunchtime. That meant she had spent several hours here in the library.

Feeling overwhelmed by the information she learned, she decided to print everything she had dug up and take it with her. She would read the rest of it later.

* * *

About a half hour later, she had everything printed out. She was glad that she had decided to bring along her big purse so that she could stuff it all in there. She didn't want Tony or anyone else to see it and start asking her questions. Making sure it was all safely in her purse, she erased the search history on the computer and got up to leave.

She found Tony waiting for her in the front of the library and gave him a smile as she approached him.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" He asked, putting down the magazine he was reading.

"Perhaps." She nodded, dodging the question. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting for so long. I'm getting hungry. Can you take me to The Dragonfly?"

"Of course." Tony smiled, letting her go out of the library first.

Neither Locke nor Angela noticed Bruce eavesdropping on their conversation. He now knew where she was going to get lunch and decided to hurry up so that he could 'bump' into her there.

* * *

About ten minutes later, after ditching the dark glasses and hat, he entered The Dragonfly. He had seen Angela enter the place only a few seconds ago. He saw that she was at the hostess station waiting for the hostess to come back. So he got out his phone and started walking, all the while staring at his phone and running into her on purpose.

"I'm sorry." He apologized, causing her to turn around. It was the first time he had been able to see her entire face. It looked different from Lacy's face, but the eyes. The eyes were exactly the same.

"It's fine." Angela finally managed to say. She couldn't believe that she just ran into Bruce Wayne after reading those articles at the library about him. It was too weird of a coincidence.

He noticed that her purse had fallen on the floor and bent down to pick it up. Covertly, he took a look inside and saw the top page of papers was an article about the fundraiser where Benjamin Newman was murdered. He wondered why she had that article in her purse and what else she had printed out at the library.

"I believe you dropped this." He picked up the purse and handed it back to her. "I'm sorry about that."

"Thanks." She gave him a small smile. She took the purse and accidentally brushed her hand against his. His previous comment caused her to have a flash of what could have been her past or just an over-active imagination.

"_Nice presentation." Bruce complimented._

_She smiled and chuckled softly. "How would you know? You slept through the whole thing."_

"_The whole thing?" He didn't realize that. "Wow. Sorry about that."_

"_It's ok." She assured him. "But tell me, do you sleep through all meetings or am I just special?"_

She shook that memory or whatever it was out of her head and focused on Bruce again.

Bruce was watching her and for a few moments it seemed like she was distracted by something. But then she returned her focus to the present. "I'm Bruce Wayne." He held out his hand for her to shake.

"I know." She shook his hand. "I'm Angela Vandelay."

"Nice to meet you." He smiled. The fact that she had the same name as the alias Lacy used didn't escape him. "Are you here having lunch with someone?"

"No." She shook her head.

"Well if you are dining alone, I insist that you join me." Bruce smiled, hoping that he could still charm a woman. It had been a long time since he had tried to be charming.

"Oh I couldn't." She refused. If Vincent found out that she had lunch with Bruce, he would go crazy. Plus, there was the mystery over not knowing why she kept having flashes of meetings with him. But she couldn't ignore the fact that she felt safer here with Bruce these last few minutes than she had ever since waking up in the Caribbean.

"Please? It's the least I can do since I ran into you. I really should look where I am going instead of staring at this phone all the time." He laughed. He could see that she was going to refuse his invitation again so he smiled. "It's just a lunch. Nothing more."

"Ok." She accepted, hoping she wasn't making a mistake.

"Wonderful." By this time the hostess had come back to the hostess stand. "Can I get a private table for two please?"

"Of course Mr. Wayne." The hostess smiled. "Right this way."

Angela followed Bruce through the restaurant to a room in the back. She was surprised that he held out her chair for her. Once she was seated, she picked up the menu.

"I hope you don't mind sitting in here. I don't always like sitting out in the main dining room." He explained as he sat down.

"It's fine." She assured him. Truthfully she was glad to not be sitting in the main dining room. Sitting in here meant there was a lower chance of anyone seeing her with Bruce and reporting it back to Vincent.

"So, Miss Vandelay, why don't you tell me a little about yourself?" Bruce asked, flashing her another smile.

"What would you like to know?" She asked, trying to think of a way out of answering any questions about herself.

"How about how long you have been in Gotham?" He asked, trying to subtly get more information out of her.

"A while." She answered, knowing that was the most truthful answer she could give. Anything else might be a lie.

"What do you think of the city?" He asked.

"It's alright." She gave him a polite smile.

"Just alright?" He laughed.

"Yeah." She nodded. "Just alright." She noticed that he seemed to be staring at her. It was starting to make her even more nervous than she already was before. Feeling bold, she sighed. "Is there some reason you keep staring at me like that? Do I have something on my face?"

"No." He shook his head. "I'm sorry if I am making you feel uncomfortable. That wasn't my intention. You just remind me of someone. Someone who was special to me."

"Well I'm sorry for your loss Mr. Wayne, but I'm starting to think maybe this lunch was a bad idea." She got up from the table, watching him do the same.

"Please, you don't have to go." He protested.

"Yes I think I do." She replied, grabbing her purse. Sitting here with him after reading the articles about him was too much for her and her head was starting to hurt more. She wasn't hungry anymore and needed to go lay down. "Thank you for the invitation though. I hope you enjoy your lunch. Goodbye Mr. Wayne."

"Goodbye." He nodded, knowing there wasn't any way to get her to stay. After spending a few minutes with her though, he knew in his heart that Lacy was still alive. Now he just had to figure out how to get Angela to remember who she really was.


End file.
